Wednesday, May 30

Kobe

It's the question every fan of every team in the league wondered this morning after hearing about Kobe Bryant's "Trade Me" declaration on Stephen Smith's radio show.

So, Sonic fans, are you interested in Kobe? Would you be willing to deal Ray Allen and a couple of picks to get him? In all likelihood, it would require Allen, one of this year's #2s, next year's #1, and another player, such as Damien Wilkins or Earl Watson to make it happen. Even then, I don't know that the Lakers would go for it, keeping in mind that a lot of GMs got itchy trigger fingers today.

It would make for an interesting lineup, for sure:

C-OdenPF-WilcoxSF-LewisSG-KobePG-Ridnour

or

C-Milicic/SwiftPF-WilcoxSF-DurantSG-KobePG-Ridnour

Personally, while the initial excitement over adding a guy who can score like Allen and play defense, too, is tempting, I don't know that it makes the Sonics tremendously better. You could argue that Kobe is Ray's better or equal in all phases of their games, and he's on the right side of 30 as well. But Kobe's tendency to dominate the ball, which wouldn't be a great atmosphere in which for either Oden or (especially) Durant to grow.

11 comments:

Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton
said...

Two things from a Northwest transplant to SoCal who's watched a TON of Laker basketball over the last decade:

1) You absolutely want Kobe on your team if your team is competitive. Watching Kobe close out games is like watching Elway or Rivera close out games in their prime. We can argue until we're blue in the face whether or not "clutch" ballplayers exist, but if they do, there's no better one than Kobe.

2) You absolutely don't want Kobe on your team if it's NOT competitive. He's a clubhouse cancer, rankles the media routinely, and manages to create dark clouds over eternally sunny LA (no knowing how that would impact eternally not-sunny SEA-town).

I'd agree with that. But Kobe's just posturing, I think. He's too image savvy, and being on the Lakers suits his image way more than ANY other team. He's be crazy to leave. He weathered the whole rape trial and is *still* the man in L.A. - he even got Shaq pushed out, and if he doesn't appreciate that, he's more of a megalomaniac than *any* of us think.

I love watching Kobe. He's amazing. But the shitty thhing about Kobe is that he wants to be on a contender, but only if he's the man, unequivocally. I thought he had a great year this year, both personally and as a teammate, so this offseason brouhaha is a bummer and pause for concern. I thought he'd transcended that kind of politcal crap. Still, I'd trade Allen and our two 2nd round picks and Watson/Wilkens in a heartbeat for him, but not much more, and I don't think the Lakers will go for that.

IT would take the #2 pick to get Kobe. (Probably the #2, plus a bunch of salary to cover the difference.) No offense Nuss, but the deal suggested is fall on your sword-style suicide for the Lakers.

The only way they do the deal is to get young brilliant prospects. Remember when they traded Shaq, the main pieces coming from the Heat were talented young players, and they failed(Lamar Odom, Brian Grant)to build the Lakers back.

It would probably require a third team now that I think about it. Expiring contacts would be most attractive for the Lakers, and we don't really have any.

I would hate to see Kobe join the Sonics, especially if they go with Oden. The team would need to build around Oden and work the ball from him back outside. Kobe has obviously won championships this way with Shaq, but it's clear he'd rather win championships by shooting 40 times a game (which will probably never get him another ring). At least it looks like the four-year-old is no longer demanding a trade: http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/351293?c_id=bh

Still not sure why everyone is so convinced that Rashard is leaving. It's not as though he filed for FA out of spite, he did it because he would have been foolish financially not to.

Until I hear words from his mouth indicating that there's no way he'll play in Seattle again, I'll assume it's a possibility, and I think everyone else should, too. You think he'd be thrilled to play in Orlando with a rookie college coach?

I would be willing to trade anything from the Sonics roster for Kobe. I would not trade the second pick for Kobe, unfortunately that is the only thing under Sonics control that I would receive in return for Kobe.